


Not the way it's supposed to go

by dicksoutforproblematiccontent



Series: Acid Blind Au [3]
Category: Cuphead (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-23
Updated: 2018-02-23
Packaged: 2019-03-23 02:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13777539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dicksoutforproblematiccontent/pseuds/dicksoutforproblematiccontent
Summary: When being saved from the Devil, one should be happy.That's not how it works for Cuphead and Mugman.





	Not the way it's supposed to go

**Author's Note:**

> hmmm, i might write more from the "post-devil"
> 
> aah, perhaps another day... for now, please satisfy yourself with this.

Today’s been quite strange so far, Cuphead silently thinks to himself. Not a single imp has come by to take them out to costumers, nor have they been brought their daily portion of food. It’s eerily quiet in hell. Where normally they’d hear the occasional scream or one of the Devil’s imps scuttling by, there is only silence. Like all residents of hell just went away overnight.

Mugman’s leaning his head against Cuphead’s shoulder. Cuphead can feel he’s tense, and just waiting for something bad to happen.

Cuphead would be lying if he said he didn’t feel the same way.

Unusual days tend to turn into bad days, especially when the Devil is involved, which he most likely is. Hell is his domain after all, and if there’s something up with hell, something’s up with the Devil.

“… Y’think they got tired of us?” Mugman suddenly says, lifting his head from Cuphead’s shoulder, “That we’re bein’ abandoned right now?”

“Dunno. We rake in good money… I think…” Cuphead replies, uncertain. If the costumers and imps are to be believed, they’ve kinda become like… well, not the face of the casino, but definitely… quite popular at least.

Mugman sighs, and sags back against Cuphead’s shoulder, clinking his head against his brother’s.

Cuphead gets the message, and loosely pulls Mugman closer to him in a half hug. Gently, he places a reassuring kiss against his brother’s temples, and murmurs that things will be okay. They’ve gotten through worse than this. In fact, on the list of “bad things that happened to us”, this would be pretty low in comparison to some others.

Neither of them can shake the feeling of utter dread though, like something’s about to happen. Something big, something of catastrophic proportions.

Pulling each other closer, they wait.

* * *

 

Cuphead startles awake at the sound of explosions nearby, shooting up into a sitting position, and feeling a weight, presumably Mugman, roll off of him with a small thud. He can hear the imps screeching in the distance, their strange, hissy native language bouncing off the walls. There are also people yelling, though he can’t make out what they’re saying.

Another explosion. The ground shakes. More shouting.

Next to him Mugman wakes up with a small scream.

“Wh-What’s happening, C-Cuphead?” Mugman asks, voice shaking.

“I-I dunno, Mugs.” Cuphead whispers back to him, listening to the commotion in the distance. “Maybe a fight broke out?”

Mugman audibly gulps. “Seems like a pretty bad one.” He says, whimpering quietly when there’s yet another explosion, this time sounding closer by.

Cuphead opens his mouth to reply, when suddenly his breath catches in his throat.

There’s footsteps, coming in their general direction.

They’re _really_ close.

Mugman clamps himself to Cuphead’s side in fear, having heard them too, and Cuphead doesn’t hesitate to do the same.

Someone- _multiple_ someones are coming their way.

“C’mon you rat, hurry up, we don’t have all day!”

Cuphead tenses.

“I'm coming, I'm coming, haf some patience!”

Mugman holds his breath.

They’re coming closer.

Closer.

_Closer._

“Hey, ist zat-?!”

_They’re here_.

“It’s them! They’re alive!”

Ohgodtheyrehereforthemohgod.

The gate’s being opened, and with a whimper Cuphead and Mugman press closer to each other, shuffling backwards awkwardly in a desperate attempt to get away.

Presumably the person who opened the gate gasps in horror at the sight of them.

Oh no oh no oh please no.

“B-boys! It’s okay! We’re here to help, promise!” a feminine voice calls out, too close.

Go away go away go away go away

“Du dummkopf- zey’re scared! Zey don’t recognize us!” another slightly squeaky voice, also too close, replies to the other person.

Their backs hit a wall, and Cuphead lets out a whine.

“Wh- but it’s me! You two, you recognize me, right? It’s me, Hilda! Hilda Berg!”

Hilda… Berg?

“Zis isn't vorking Hilda, gif zem some space!”

Their neighbor, Hilda Berg?

“We need to get them out of here Werner, even your stupid rat brain should get that! Look at them! Who knows what they went through!”

“ _Ja_ , aber-!”

“H-H-H-Hild-d-da?”

Cuphead draws in a sharp breath when Mugman speaks up and the two, Hilda and Werner, stop arguing with each other, most likely focusing their attention on Mugman and him. Agitatedly, he clinks his head against Mugman, a loose way of saying ‘ _what the hell’._

As Hilda and Werner close in on them, talking, trying to not startle them, Mugman gives Cuphead an uncertain clink in return.

_‘They may help’_.

Cuphead curls in on himself and into Mugman. He knows that, goddammit, he knows that! But he just- so many people said they would ‘help’, and in the end they didn’t- and the Devil just punished punished punished them in ways he didn’t know people could be punished and- and-

He flinches when a small, furry hand lands on his arm, and he can feel Mugman tremble next to him.

“Zere zere… ve vill get you out of here…” Werner’s voice is gentle, trying to soothe the two terrified cups. “Hilda, go get zee others, I vill stay vith zem.”

“Got it, I’ll be back soon!”

Cuphead closes his eyes, and pulls Mugman closer to himself.

Breathe, he reminds himself

Just breathe.

* * *

 

Everything after that is a blur to Cuphead and Mugman. Too much is happening at once, too many sounds and too many people, all smearing together into an incomprehensible mess that only makes the entire affair worse. All they can do to ground themselves is cling together, and lash out when someone tries to separate them.

They don’t even realize it when they’re being carried outside of Inkwell Hell.

Elder Kettle almost faints when Dr. Kahl’s robot settles down the poor, whimpering cups in front of him.

He can’t believe these are the same Cuphead and Mugman he so carefully raised in his home at Inkwell Isle 1. These naked, scarred, trembling young cups are so far from what he remembers them being before the Devil got his nasty claws on them, he almost can’t bear to look at them.

But he can’t look away. He can’t.

“My boys…” he says, reaching out with a trembling hand. He wants to hug them, embrace them and tell them that everything was okay now, like he did when they were just sippycups and they were scared of a storm. He wants to take away all the hurt and all the pain they must have felt, are feeling right now.

His breath catches when Mugman turns his head in his direction and opens his eyes and hollow, black holes stare at him blindly instead of those bright, lively charcoal colored eyes.

“E-E-E-ld-d-er-?” Mugman asks uncertainly, his voice hoarse and quivering.

Elder Kettle is too stunned to reply, and within seconds, Mugman returns to closing his eyes and hiding his face into Cuphead.

Tears well up in Elder Kettle’s eyes at the realization that Mugman couldn’t see him, and without thinking, he throws himself on his boys, pulling them close as sobs start wrecking the old tea kettle.

Both boys immediately cry out and kick and bite and headbutt Elder Kettle like two terrified wild animals, but Elder Kettle is persistent and grieving and he just wants to take away their pain-

“Mister Kettle, let go!” Cagney Carnation says, hurriedly worming his vines between Elder Kettle and the brothers until Kettle loosens his grip, and Cagney can safely put some distance between him and the now even more panicked, hyperventilating brothers. He’d been standing guard in case some imps or other uninvited guests tried getting at the cups, but…

“Are you daft?” He hisses at Elder Kettle, “That was  _clearly_ not something they were ready for, and who knows what the Devil did, and-“

He pauses when the old teapot whimpers, eyes overflowing with tears and stammers out something that faintly sounds like an apology to his grandkids, but can’t quite finish through his bawling, before Elder Kettle sinks down on the ground, audibly sobbing and wailing and cursing the Devil.

Cagney’s never seen Elder Kettle this upset.

Cuphead and Mugman seem to have gone catatonic, unable to take the stress. Their empty eye sockets are wide open, staring at nothing.

Cagney stares at the broken family before him, and sadly wonders to himself if something like this can ever be repaired.

 

**Author's Note:**

> https://suck-my-cups.tumblr.com


End file.
